World Renew to Work in Nepal
An earthquake victim holds her daughter as she sits outside her makeshift shelter.
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Over the years, Grace Wiebe has overseen World Renew’s disaster response work in many difficult international situations, including after tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and typhoons.
World Renew’s senior disaster response project manager is once again being called to serve. This time, she is travelling to Nepal to help coordinate the Christian Reformed Church agency’s response to the 7.8 earthquake that recently caused widespread devastation across the country.
“The first thing I will do is to assess the situation and the capacity of our partners,” she said. “I will be determining the pieces of the puzzle of what we will do.”
With crews digging through collapsed buildings and the remnants of landslides, the government said a total of more than 7,500 people had died as a result of the April 25 quake with another 14,500 injured, according to news accounts.
The United Nations says 8 million people - more than one quarter of Nepal's population - have been affected by the disaster.
As part of her work, Wiebe said, she will be determining how World Renew can join with Christian Reformed World Missions, which has staff in Nepal, to provide assistance to its partners and partner churches. World Renew will also be working with a range of international partners in responding to the earthquake.
In this early stage, World Renew is working to meet the immediate needs of survivors, providing food, shelter, water, and blankets.
“This has been a significant disaster,” said Wiebe. “It won’t be solved in three months; it will be a long-term recovery.”
Meanwhile, World Renew is sending two couples as International Relief Managers (IRMs) to assist in the recovery. They are Pete and Ila Diepersloot and Harry and Annie Bergshoeff.
“Since my retirement more than 13 years ago, Ila and I have worked on volunteer relief efforts in many places and we believe that has become our calling,” said Pete Diepersloot.
As IRMs with World Renew, they were involved in relief efforts after the 2005 Banda Aceh tsunami/earthquake that killed thousands.
IRMS are trained and highly experienced volunteers that are available to respond quickly when support is needed for World Renew’s international disaster response work.
They are called on to manage and implement a wide variety of projects in response to natural disasters, like floods and earthquakes, and disasters caused by civil unrest. IRMs typically work for three-six months on an international volunteer assignment.
“I believe that my engineering training and career experience in project management have been preparing me all my life for this kind of work,” said Pete Diepersloot. He and his wife are from Arizona.
Harry and Annie Bergshoeff, who live in Ontario, will stay in Nepal for five weeks to help with initial activities.
They recently served as IRMs in Liberia as part of World Renew’s Ebola response. In fact, they have only been home for just over a month.
“We were of course excited about being back in Ontario to enjoy the warm Spring weather and see family,” said Annie Bergshoeff , “but as we heard the news about Nepal our hearts stirred at the deep pain of the people. The details and numbers and stories that keep coming in show the devastation.”
Like Pete Diepersloot, Harry and Annie Bergshoef served as IRMs in the early stages another large natural disaster—for them, it was Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, in November 2013.
“We learned a lot through our experience in the Philippines—what to expect, what not to expect,” said Annie Bergshoeff.
“If we hadn’t come through that experience, I think the idea of this response might have been even more overwhelming. So that is just one way that God has prepared us for our service in Nepal.”
Pete Diepersloot said: “Pray that we can be humble and effective in our work—that people can see we are Christians by our actions, that earthquake victims can be comforted and that we can provide some assistance in people recovering from this disaster rebuilding homes and livelihoods.”
